This invention relates generally to an information search system and, more specifically, to a network based information search system in which information queries and records are qualified by time and/or geographical references
It has become routine for a user of a personal computer to search a large distributed data source, such as the internet, for information relevant to a topic of interest. With the aid of a browser such as Netscape and a search engine such as Alta Vista, Lycos or Yahoo, the user can perform text string searches for the desired information. Although text string searches provide users with the ability to customize each search, text string searches of large distributed databases often produce thousands of hits, many of which are irrelevant to the user""s topic of interest. As one can imagine, subsequent filtering of the search results by the user is a tedious and time consuming process. Furthermore, a user who repeats a search to obtain the most up-to-date information must compare the search results against information from earlier searches to filter the updates, thereby adding to the user""s burden.
Alternatively, a user may subscribe to an on-line magazine or newsgroup, which are known in the art as information xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d systems, to receive globally broadcast information of interest without having to transmit a search request. The user can xe2x80x9ctunexe2x80x9d to one of a limited number of channels to obtain the information of interest. However, the user is limited to the broad classification of the channel to which he is tuned (e.g., xe2x80x9cSports News/NFLxe2x80x9d) and thus, unlike with text string searching, cannot truly customize his subscription.
As such, there is currently no way for a user to perform text string searches of a data source in a manner that significantly increases the percentage of relevant xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d and thus decreases the amount of time spent by a user filtering search results.
A technical advance is achieved in the art by providing a method and system for a geographical information search system.
A system and method are disclosed for searching a data source using text string searches in which queries and information records are qualified by temporal and/or geographical references. In an exemplary embodiment, temporal and geographical references associated with a query are the date/time the query was last submitted by a user and the user""s geographical area of interest (defined by ranges of latitude and longitude coordinates), respectively. The temporal and geographical references associated with an information record are the date/time the record was last modified and the xe2x80x9coriginxe2x80x9d of the record, respectively. A comparison between the temporal and geographic references associated with a query and those associated with the information records in the data source permits geographically irrelevant records to be suppressed and allows an individual user to receive only information that has been modified since the user last requested it. Thus, search results are automatically pre-filtered prior to transmission to the user thereby conserving network resources and reducing the amount of context-based filtering required of the user.
Other and further aspects of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following detailed description and by reference to the attached drawings.